Together
by SpaceSquidLance
Summary: Keith rescues a little girl from a genetic lab, to find out she is also half Glara, half human. Major Klance. Hints at Shallura. I suck at summaries, trust me it's worth checking out.
1. Chapter 1

Helloooo! I couldn't help myself, I had to publish this! It's short, I know, but I originally had one huge chapter, but decided to break it apart into seperate chapters. You can read this story without reading Going Rogue, but I do reccomend it.

...

Keith peered around the corner into the large laboratory. Trashed, with tipped over machines and cages, but no sign of any people so far. He spoke into his helmet comm.

"I found a lab of some sort. Going in."

He heard a gunshot through the comm. "Copy that . The first hallway is now clear."

Keith heard something move behind him. Without saying word, he thrust his bayard out behind him, killing one of the guards. Keith turned around to see his victim. Galra. He sighed. "I wonder if he truly thought any of this was right." He thought, before turning back towards the next spot he had to clear.

Keith went into the large room. Still no sign of any people. The room reminded him of his middle school laboratory, only twice as large and half the room is dedicated to creating some sort of space cocaine. Empty knocked over cages, shattered beakers on the floor, and from what Keith could tell, looked like a messed up Alien skeleton. "Looks like someone took Halloween to the next level." He thought. Stepping over piles of trash and scrap metal, he searched the lab thoroughly for any scientists or remaining survivors from the genetic experiments. He scanned some papers on the counter that weren't ripped up, but they were in some sort of code. Keith sighed and wished he had paid more attention when Pidge was talking to them about cracking code. He put the paper down and looked around again. Nothing. Keith was about to tell Lance the room was clear, but suddenly, he heard something crying from a cage across from him. He reactivated his bayard and went closer to it.

Inside of one of the pushed over cages, was what looked to Keith, like a human toddler. A card was taped to the cage door, in some alien language. He cursed himself again, and pocketed the card. He deactivated his weapon and opened the cage door. The tiny child turned around to look at him. The poor thing was in standard Galra prison uniform, even though this wasn't a Galra run experiment. Other than violet eyes and a deep purple hair, the little thing seemed human. Maybe she was part.. He scratched his head. Danish? Keith got on his knees to reach the child's eye level.

"Hey little guy... Are you okay? I'm here to rescue you.."

The kid looked frightened and backed into the corner of the small cage. Keith smiled held his hand out towards them.

"It's okay.. I won't hurt you. I promise."

The child stared at his hand, most likely thinking it was a trap. But, they reluctantly grabbed his hand anyway. Keith picked them up, and they flinched, fearing the worst. But nothing came. Just Keith slowly walking with them out of the lab. Keith smiled at the kid, trying not to scare it. They seemed to calm a little and trust Keith now, and clung onto his shoulder for dear life. Keith spoke into the comm.

"No more scientists, but I found a little kid, who seems pretty human. I have them with me, where are you?"

"I just finished clearing the last room on my end. See you.. two?.. In the sky."

"Copy that."

Keith, holding the kid in one hand and bayard in the other, started running back to where red was. He climbed in, sat the child on his lap, and took off. He watched as Blue rose in the sky, almost simonius sly as he did.

Lance came online through his lions communicator. "So you found a little kid, huh?"

Keith sighed and looked down at his lap. "Yep. Pretty cute though. And they seem to trust me now, it was bawling when I first saw them in that cage."

"You know what gender it is? Not that that matters, but I'm curious."

"Seems like a girl to me, but I thought Pidge was a guy when we first met. So I can't really be sure. There was an inscription on the cage, but it was in an alien language. Gonna have Pidge translate it when we get back to the castle."

"See you then"


	2. Chapter 2

Thank you for the support so far on this story! Hope you all love this little bean as much as I do!

….

After a bit of flying, Keith docked at the castle. He picked the kid back up, and carefully walked out of his lion. Pidge was waiting for him when he got off. She adjusted her glasses and peered at the tiny creature.

"Huh! Other than the hair and the eyes, seems pretty human to me. If you give her to me, I can run few more tests to be sure they're not sick or about to eat us, or something like that."

Pidge reached out for the kid, but they squealed and clung to Keith's shoulder.

Pidge sighed. "I'm not dealing with this, you can hold her while I do the tests then."

Keith shrugged and followed her, but inside he was pretty happy. He had already grown fond of the kid, and really didn't want to let her go. He sat on the doctor's table thing with the little kid in his lap. Pidge waited for them to look the other way, and quickly got a small blood sample. Squealing, the toddler clung onto Keith's shirt. Pidge stuck a band aid where she got the sample, and went back to work.

After about five minutes, Lance walked in to see Keith attempting to teach the kid how to play patty-cake, and Pidge typing relentlessly into her computer. He sat down next to Keith and watched him play.

He whistled. "I've never seen anyone play patty cake that badly."

Keith glared at him. "Shut up, it's probably... her?" Keith glanced at Pidge who gave him a thumbs up from her work station. ".. first time playing."

Lance chuckled. "I was talking about you. She's doing great, but you did kinda teach her wrong." Lance cracked his knuckles. "Let me show you how the real pro's play patty cake. "

Lance hopped off and walked over to the little girl and held up his hands to play. Almost instinctively, she buried her head into Keith's jacket. Keith patted her side and sighed. "She's not really that friendly to anyone but me yet. Like Pidge had to give her some space candy to get her off my lap so she could run another test. And the kid still won't really even look at Pidge."

Lance sighed. "Then how'd you do it?"

Keith shrugged slightly. "I just.. held out my hand and promised I wouldn't hurt her. After a minute, she trusted me."

Lance held out his hand at the kid. "I won't hurt you... I promise. All I want to do is teach you patty cake, which my boyfriend here seems to suck at."

"Hey!"

The girl hesitated, but held her hand up to Lance's and high fived it. Lance held out his other one, and they slowly started to play the game again. The girl laughed as Lance made funny faces during the game. Keith smiled.

"She really like you! Wanna try Pidge?"

Pidge ran her fingers through her hair. "Not right now.. I might have discovered something.. interesting. Hold on."

Lance stuck his tongue out at Pidge. The little girl imitated him and stuck her tongue out as well.

Keith choked on air. "Oh my god! Thats adorable."

Pidge tapped her foot as she waited for a paper to print out. She snatched it out of the machine as soon as it printed. She read the paper with a shocked expression on her face.

"Well I'll be damned. I was right. Keith, she's only have human."

Keith raised an eyebrow. "What's the other half?"

Pidge adjusted her glasses. "Coincidently, Gaara. She was an experiment to see if human and Galra DNA were compatible. It succeeded, obviously, and was according to this, used as a lab rat for their other experiments. Like for example.." Pidge walked over there and pulled up the girls short sleeve to show stitches. "They took her arm off and re connected it."

Keith froze. "Like me? She's like me?"

Pidge handed him the report. "Yep. So.. what's the plan for her? Are we gonna find some family she can stay with somewhere?"

Keith scanned the report, re reading the genetic results a million times over. "No.."

Lance put a hand on Keith's shoulder. "Hm?"

Keith looked up from the paper. "No. I'll raise her."

Lance and Pidge responded in union. "What?"

Keith looked at the little girl and back at them. "I.. I always wanted to find other people like me.. And now I have! Plus.. it's not like she'll go two feet away from me without bursting into tears."

Lance spoke up. "I'm with you on that one. And I'll help you raise her. I always wanted a daughter anyway."

Keith looked at Pidge. "It's your turn to say something emotional and cheesy now."

She sighed. "Alright... But I'm strictly Aunt Pidge. And you still got to run it by the others.."


	3. Chapter 3

I can't believe I hit 130 followers on Instagram! Thanks guys! In honor of that, I had to post this. It was actually supposed to be two separate chapters, but made a last minute decision to combine them. Enjoy!

…...

About ten minutes later, everyone was in the kitchen discussing the little girl Keith had fond. Hunk and Coran were immediately on board with Keith and Lance's decision, but Shiro and Allura were unsure.

Shiro sighed. "Are you guys sure? I'm positive this is the first time keith has ever even held a child. And it's dangerous out here.. We're constantly under attack every day."

Allura chided in. "Shiro has a point.. She'd be in constant danger. Are you sure about this?"

Keith looked at them with a determined face. "Yes."

Shiro and Allura gave a look to each other. Allura sighed. "Alright.. I guess we can try it out, but if something goes wrong, we're finding her a new home. Oh, and also, please go give her a bath. She probably hasn't had one in ages."

Keith smiled. "Thank you Princess. Lance, you have cousins. Wanna help me with this?"

Lance shrugged. "Yea, alright."

...

The two paladins had succeeded in getting her into a bath. It had taken some coaxing at first, but she was currently playing with what resembled a rubber duck in the bath bubbles.

Lance looked over at Keith. "So... have you tried getting her to talk yet?"

Keith shrugged. "No.. not really. I mean, those aliens spoke english, and wrote in some alien language, so I'm not sure. Pidge says she's about three, so she should be able to."

Lance leaned over at the little girl. "Hey sweetheart, can you talk?"

She nodded and continued splashing her duck in the bubbles.

Keith and Lance looked at each other in confusion. Keith raised an eyebrow. "Can you speak.. now?"

She smiled "O-k."

The little girl struggled to speak for some reason, resulting in slightly raspy and drawn out words. Keith made a mental note about that, but was happy she could talk.

Lance grinned at her. "Do you have a name?"

She thought about it for a second. "1...7...2."

Keith frowned. "Can we call you something else?"

The little girl shrugged and played with the bubbles some more.

Lance looked over at Keith. "What about Rosa?"

Keith smiled. "If she's alright with it."

"Are you okay with the name Rosa?"

"Ro...sa?"

"Yea! It's the name of a flower on our home planet! But if you don't like it we can think of something else."

She giggled a little and smiled. "No... I ..like ..it."

Later on, after she had fallen asleep in her chair at dinner, Keith took her to his room. He had decided he would just sleep on the floor across the room. But Keith wasn't really tired yet, so he wen't to go talk to Lance for a bit. Lance's room was right next to his anyways, so it wasen't that big of a deal. Lance was reading an introduction to Altean manuel on his bed. He heard Keith come in and sat his book down.

"Whats up Keith?"

Keith sighed and thew himself onto Lance's bed. Lance quickly moved over to avoid the collision. Keith turned his head over to face Lance.

"You think it's a good idea to have her here?"

Lance laid down next to him. "I wouldn't of told you I'd help you take care of her if i didn't. Sure.. It's going to be tricky sometimes, and eventually you're going to rethink this over and over again, but in the long run, it's great. She deserves a good father, and you'll do fine."

Keith nodded. "I know.. But.. I know nothing about raising a kid. And Shiro's right, we almost die about every day. What type of life is that for her?"

"Keith. If it doesn't work out, there are hundreds of planets she could go to. All Empire free. But yes, she would be in danger a lot. But she's going to be in danger everywhere in the universe until we get Lotor under control. But..." Lance gave Keith a stern look. "If you honestly doubt yourself that much, do something now. Longer she stays with you, more she gets attached. And she already won't step two feet away from you. But..."

Keith raised an eyebrow. "But?"

"Let's say you were in her position, and replace you with the blade of marmora. What would you do? Go to Earth, or stay with them?"

Keith rolled back over at stared at the ceiling. "I suppose I would stay."

Lance smiled at picked back up his book. After a minute or two, he see's Keith dozing off. He put his book back down again, and decided to go check on Rosa for a second.

When Lance walked into the room, he could hear Rosa crying. He walked over to her and knelt down by the bed. "Whats wrong?"

Rosa jumped back in surprise when she saw Lance, but after a couple seconds, realized it was Lance. She jumped onto him and hugged him, sobbing into his shoulder. Lance figured out what must have happened.

"Did.. Did you have a nightmare?"

She nodded and wiped her eyes.

"When I was little, my Mama would tell me to talk about my dreams so I could feel better about it. Do you wanna talk about it?"

"Sc-ary."

Lance nodded. "It was scary? Did anything else happen?"

"Th..ey... were try..ing to poke me wi..th th..eir met-al.. st..icks."

Lance tried not to react to her statement too much. He attempted to calm her down. "Shhh.. It's okay. You're safe now. You'll always be safe with us. They won't get you anymore."

She seemed comforted by Lance's words and slowly stopped scrying and drifted off to sleep. Once he was sure she was out, he gently set her back onto the bed. Lance was smiling as he walked out of Keith's room and into his. Keith was still asleep when Lance walked in. He chuckled and got back onto his bed, trying to avoid disturbing Keith. He read another chapter of his book before turning off his light.

Lance turned over onto his side. "I wonder if she's still dreaming about that lab…" He too started to fall asleep.


	4. Chapter 4

1/2 Dozen Mixed

1/2 Dozen Mixed

Keith was always up early, way too early for any living being to function. At least, that's what he thought. When he went to see Rosa, she was already awake, sitting up on his bed. Just sitting there.

Keith walked over to her. "Why are you up so early?"

Rosa flinched a little at the sound of Keith's voice, but remembered who he was and relaxed. She shrugged her shoulders at Keith's question.

"Well, let's get you something to eat. Then you can watch me train if you want." He held his hand out to the little girl.

She hopped off of the bed and grabbed it. The two walked to the kitchen in silence, since they're both horrible communicators. When the reached the kitchen, Keith made two bowls of food goop for them. Rosa apparently didn't mind the taste of food goop, and ate it without question. Keith ate his alongside her, wondering what to say.

"So.. Uh...What's your favorite color?"

Rosa thought about it for a minute, then pointed to her hair. Apparently, her favorite color was purple. She then looked at him expectantly, apparently waiting to hear what his favorite color was.

Keith didn't figure it out at first, and looked at her in confusion. After a second, it dawned on him.

"Oh! My favorite color is red."

Rosa thought about it for a second, then pointed to his jacket that was laying across the chair next to him.

"Yea. That color."

She smiled triumphantly and finished her bowl of goop. He was about to take her to the training deck, but realized there is nothing for her to do there. She's like three, she doesn't need to train. What is she supposed to do all day? He stared at her, racking his brain for an idea, until he heard Allura walk into the room.

Maybe Allura had an idea.

Luckily, Allura she had a great idea for Keith.

"Just have the mice play with her."

Keith raised an eyebrow. "The mice? They like to play?"

Allura laughed. "Of course! I'll call them and ask them!"

Allura did a bird call so loud that Keith and Rosa covered their ears.

Keith uncovered his ears and glared at Allura. "Why?"

Something rattled in the vent above Keith's head. He glanced up, only to see a chubby mouse land on his face. The little mice used Keith's face as a trampoline to jump onto Allura's shoulder.

Allura smiled at her tiny mouse friends. "Hey guys! We were wondering if you wanted to play with Rosa!"

The mice looked at each other for a moment, then nodded excitedly. One of them tried jumped onto Rosa's shoulder to greet her. Rosa was not expecting this, and instantly panicked. She screeched and flinched back, flinging the mouse off.

Keith kneeled down to Rosa's eye level and picked up the mouse. "Woah woah, it's ok. You see? The mouse just wants to play with you! See!" Keith held his other finger out towards the mouse, even though it was recovering from the fall, gave him a tiny high five. Rosa glanced at Keith, then reluctantly held up her finger to the mouse, who also gave her a tiny high five. She giggled, and slowly took the mouse in her hands. The other mice came and climbed in her hands, also giving her tiny high fives.

Keith smiled. "Why don't you guys go play somewhere? But not the training deck or anywhere dangerous. The mice know where to go."

One of them gave Keith a tiny salute and jumped onto the floor, leading Rosa out of the room. She laughed and chased after it.

Allura smiled a Keith after she had left the room. "That was good. I thought that would've gone a lot worse."

Keith nodded. "Yea, me too. But hey, now she's got something to do. I can go train until Lance wakes up."

"What happens when Lance wakes up?"

Keith rolled his eyes. "Oh, he just wants to duel me. I'm slightly worried, since he had gotten pretty good lately. That's why I'm going to try and get a few minutes training before-"

Then almost like magic, Lance leaned into the doorway. "Why is Rosa chasing mice around the castle?"

Keith yelped and whipped around. "Speak of the devil and the devil shall appear. Oh, the mice wanted to play with her or something. It'll keep her busy."

Lance reigned shock at Keith's statement. "How dare you! I'm your boyfriend, not the devil!"

Keith snorted. "What's the difference?"

Lance sighed. "Well, let's go."

"So much for extra training time…"

Lance punched him in the shoulder. "And you're trying to cheat?! Dang Keith, I expected more from you."

….

Sorry it was short, I've been pretty busy lately. More soon!...


	5. Chapter 5

I decided I wanted to skip time in this, just because I wanted Rosa a little more settled in. I'm impatient. They're ages from the begging have been 21-Lance, 22-Keith, and 3-Rosa. I do a lot of cuts in this chapter, so sorry for that.

...

They could tell she was out of the ordinary very fast. She seemed to have a higher learning capability then other children her age. She was bilingual, on top of that, which made things interesting. She had learned English and Galran language. Once you got past her outer shell, she was a brilliant, ambitious little girl.

Lance and Keith always dueled at least once a week, to keep them on top of their game. The fight against the Galra may be slowly coming to an end, but team Voltron had to be prepared. They usually dueled after Rosa had been put to bed. But the little girl couldn't sleep tonight, and was wondering where her fathers were. She heard a distant clanging of metal, and started walking towards it. The sound grew louder with every step. She looked through the glass onto the training deck, and almost cried out seeing the acts of violence. But she watched, carefully, making notes in her head about what they're doing. They're not fighting to kill, clearly. It was almost like a dance, watching them go back

and forth. She was completely and utterly captivated.

Keith and lance were ignorant to the fact that little Rosa was watching them. Keith found an opening and pinned Lance to the ground, knocking the weapon out of his hand. Instead of thrusting his sword forward into his throat, he kissed him briefly. "I win."

Lance sighed and pushed Keith off. "There goes my two week title. I almost had you."

Keith smirked. "Almost."

They both stood and turned towards the door to see Rosa sitting in front of the glass. She was in awe of what had happened. Lance walked towards the door swiftly. He opened it and looked down at the little girl in front of the window. "Now what do you think you're doing little missy?"

Rosa stood up. "Can you teach me to fight like that?" Her speaking and pronunciation had become much better in the few months that had past.

Lance looked at Keith, who shrugged. "We'll talk about it tomorrow, Rosa. But for the time being, you need to get your butt to bed."

Rosa giggled and ran down the hallway towards the bedroom, leaving Keith and Lance in the dust. Keith looked at Lance. "So she wants to learn to fight?"

Lance nodded, shifting his weight to lean against the doorway. "I figured she would want to. But what about her arm? I'm worried about what type of tests they did to it, it might not be able to keep up."

Keith snorted. "Lance she's three. She's not going to be doing any real fighting for awhile. Plus it could give her arm some strength anyways."

"True. Let's get to bed before she runs back out here again."

...

Rosa wanted to learn to fight the next day, but a mission interrupted, so it was postponed.

It was supposed to be a simple mission. In and out. They only needed Lance and Pidge to complete it, since Keith needed to work on some repairs to the black lion and wasn't necessary to the mission.

But something went horribly wrong.

Lance got stuck inside a Galra base. On its own, that's a scary scenario. But with a set time bomb inside, it raised the stakes. The information they had received about the amount of surveillance and guard was false. Getting in was the easy part. Getting out seemed impossible. The Galra were expecting them. Once Pidge had gotten the bomb set, they were surrounded. Pidge was ahead of him, and got out before the explosion. She thought Lance was right behind her.

He wasn't, and it was too late for her to turn back.

Lance did his best to keep up with Pidge in the beginning, but he was trying to keep guards off of her in the process of running for his life. Someone got his leg, and it slowed him down. He got caught in the blast.

The green lion scooped up Pidge to shield her, but Red couldn't get to him until she saw him floating in a pile of rubble seconds after the blast.

Pidge was screaming threw the comms, trying to get to reach Lance. Her lion scanned the debris for signatures of life, but found none. She saw the red lion speeding back in the direction of the castle, so she prayed red had him. Pidge got in contact with the castle, and told them what happened.

...

Keith was there, watching Rosa draw with some paper and colored pencils when Pidge starting yelling threw the comms. Keith told Rosa to stay where she was and was not to move under any circumstances. She nodded, not understanding what was happening. Keith ran to the bridge.

"Pidge! What's going on? Are you two and the lions okay?"

"No! Whoever gave Allura that intel was lying Keith. They were waiting for us! I got our okay,but Lance was caught in the blast. Red got to him before I could do anything, tell Coran to get a pod ready."

"Pidge, is he ok? Do you know anything about his status?"

"No. He was right behind me when we were running, but something happened and he fell behind.. I didn't realize until I was out. The blast had killed all the Galra, everything on that base. But Green scanned after Red had got him, I believe. Red's going fast. They'll be there in about a dobash. I'm at least 30 ticks behind them."

Coran, who had entered the room said, "Copy that. Do you need a pod as well?"

"No, I'm fine. Just prepare for Lance."

He nodded, and swiftly went to prepare a pod.

Keith was running to red's hangar to wait for Lance.

...

Lance.. was basically dead when Red brought him in. He was unconscious, barely breathing, bleeding badly. Coran got him in the pod as quickly as he could, and estimated about two weeks before Lance could come out. Pidge, felt like it was her fault for not making sure Lance was behind her. Hunk comforted her, telling her it wasn't. But he was beside himself too. Lance was his best buddy, and he almost died. Allura, Shiro, and Coran were distraught as well, but knew Lance would be better in time.

But Keith, he took it hard. He hardly ever left his post, sitting in front of the pod, waiting. He asked if Shiro and Allura could look after Rosa for a bit, he didn't want to leave Lances side. They completely understood and kept the little girl busy. But two weeks,was only two weeks, even though it felt like an eternity. Keith waited. On the last day, everyone waited around the pod with Keith, as they awaited their beloved teammate to awaken.

And he did.

Lance opened his eyes to see his team all surrounding him, overjoyed looks on their faces. "What's the occasion?" He smiled, taking a step out of the pod. Everyone surrounded him with a giant group hug. Hunk was the first to speak. "We thought you were dead buddy!" Lance looked at him in confusion while being squished by everyone. "Hold up guys I gotta breath a little." They let go of him, and Lance crossed his arms and looked at the group. "Last thing I remember... is... oh." Lances face dropped. "Yeah... That thing exploded.. I was so close to getting out of there until this guard got my leg." He rolled his eyes. "He was such an asshole." Lance smiled again. "At least I'm all back to normal now." Keith smiled, trying to restrain himself from tackling Lance in an overjoyed rampage. "Now go get dressed.", he said, throwing some clothes at Lance. "Rosa has been dying to see you."

...

Later that night, Lance stands in the mirror. The healing pods can heal considerable damage, but the one thing they can't heal are the scars. His fingers trace over a new one, going from the bottom of his chin to his lower right eye. Though he has numerous scars all over his body, this would be largest on his face so far. An older one, on his forehead, was barely even noticeable. This one... This one was.

Keith entered the bathroom behind him. He saw Lance staring at his own reflection, and empathy washed over him. Keith walked over next to him, staring into the mirror as well. Not knowing what to say, he just grabbed Lances hand. Lance sighed. "I wonder if my mother will even recognize me now. I've changed so much. I mean, look at me. I got this big-ass scar striped across my face, and dozens more everywhere else."

"Of course she'll recognize you. You're outer appearance may change, but on the inside, you're still annoying Lance."

Lance cracked a smile. "At least I'm not sporting a man bun."

Keith snorted, but got serious, he turned and looked at Lance. "You realize you almost died, right?"

Lance frowned. "I know. I'm sorry. That had to of put you through hell through the past couple weeks."

Keith grimace. "It did, but that's beside the point. I almost lose you.. about every other day. Every time is a wake up call, but I haven't had the guts to do it until now." Keith fished out a ring from his pocket. It was metal, simple, but beautiful all the same. He got down on one knee. "Lance Nicolás McClain... will you marry me?"

Lance was in shock. For a second, he didn't say anything, just stared at Keith.

He smiled, tears forming in the corners of his eyes. "Of course I will you nut job."

Keith put the ring on his finger. Lance tackled him on the ground and kissed him.

...

So... I don't think a wedding will be a chapter? I feel like I would make a mockery out of it, so they got married after this guys.


End file.
